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Israel's political and security leaderships have been trying to forecast the outcome of the historic events now sweeping through the Arab states of the Middle East. In the Knesset, the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, has convened 'a brain storming session' with some top Israeli experts to discuss the Arab 'democratic movement' to force regime changes in the neighboring states, the Gulf and North Africa. At the same time Daniel Pipes, a prominent American Arabist, has also presented his snapshot of the Middle East upheavals. Analyst David Essing sums up some of the assessments presented by the experts.

The international media are now focused on two flash points on the globe - the tsunami and cataclysmic nuclear threat in Japan and the West's air strikes in Libya against the forces of Muamar Gadaffi. Analyst David Essing looks at some of the lessons to be learned from these developments that should be applied to Iran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons.

Maj.Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, a senior adviser to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has warned that one lesson from Libya is that radical regimes such as Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Gen. Gilad noted that Muamar Kadafi had been forced to abandon his nuclear weapons project in the past, otherwise he would now be threatening to use them today against his opponents at home and abroad. IsraCast analyst David Essing reports on some of the issues now facing Israel.

Israeli leaders and the IDF are closely monitoring the rioting across Egypt that is threatening to topple the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, Israel's closest ally in the Middle East. A former Israeli cabinet minister, who has been the closest Israeli official to Mubarak, has now warned that Israel must prepare for the post-Mubarak era. And Binyamin Ben Eliezer adds: 'I believe a new Egyptian regime will be more militant and radical Islamist'! Analyst David Essing has this assessment on how the tumult in Egypt is being viewed in Israel.

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reacted swiftly to the sudden upheaval in Tunisia and the threat of a new civil war in Lebanon, Israel's northern neighbor, where Hezballah, an Iranian proxy is threatening to take overall control of the state. The shock waves are still reverberating throughout the entire Middle East and are likely to do so for some time to come. Iraq was formerly the epicenter, now Tunisia the quiet state on the Mediterranean that welcomed Israeli tourists, has become a new focus of turmoil. Its tyrannical President Ben Ali was toppled by thousands of citizens who took to the streets ending his regime of twenty three years. Meanwhile 'Lebanon is Lebanon'. The Sunni-Shiite, Christian and Druze ethnic tensions have again escalated after a UN inquiry has found Hezbollah guilty of assassinating former Sunni Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Analyst David Essing has this assessment of how the recent developments may affect Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's strategic outlook.

It's now official - 'Rosatom', Russia's Atomic Energy Agency has announced that on August 21st, Russian technicians will load Iran's Bushehr reactor with nuclear fuel. Spokesman Sergei Navikov was quoted as saying: 'From then on the rector will be qualified as a nuclear plant'. A Russian delegation headed by Rosatom director Sergei Kiriyenko is due to attend the ceremony. The news came just before the Sabbath when Israeli officialdom closes down until Sunday. However, IsraCast analyst David Essing has some unofficial comments.

By enriching uranium from 3% to 20%, Iran appears to have startled most of the international community into finally believing that her ultimate goal is to acquire nuclear weapons. However China, which can cast a veto in the UN Security Council against stiffer sanctions, is still holding out. Amid the mounting tension, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be flying to Moscow to discuss the situation with Russian leaders, while U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen flies to Israel. Meanwhile Brig.Gen.(res.) Uzi Eilam, a former top Israeli nuclear official, has contended that although Iran's move was dramatic, the Iranians apparently still do not have the required capability to build an atomic bomb.

The U.S. announcement of a $6 billion arms sale to Taiwan could not have come at a worse time for President Barack Obama's attempt to rally UN Security Council backing for new sanctions against Iran. A former senior Israeli official in Washington says chances are now slimmer than ever of getting China's crucial support. Meanwhile, the U.S. is beefing up the missile defenses of four Gulf states as Iran launches a missile which could potentially reach America's eastern seaboard. Analyst David Essing assesses this and other developments over the past seven days.

Iran
continues to defy U.S. President Barack Obama's January deadline and
continues to produce enriched uranium as part of its nuclear weapons
project. This week, IDF Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin disclosed the Iranian
nuclear clock is still ticking and every day Tehran is enriching a
'number of kilograms of low grade uranium'. At the latest meeting of
the 'five plus one', China and Russia again blocked any serious attempt
to impose new and harsher sanctions on the Iranian regime. Israeli
analyst Menashe Amir, who was born and bred in Iran, assessed the
current situation in an address to the Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs in Jerusalem. IsraCast's David Essing recommends Amir's
analysis as an inside look into what is happening in the Iran file
which is far from closed.

Chaim Azriel Weizmann was a chemist, a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on February 1, 1949, and served until 1952. Weizmann founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu first caught the eye of the Israeli public when he served as an eloquent Ambassador to the U.N. He has now returned to the General Assembly to make a masterful defense of the Jewish state's struggle for survival, not only in the Middle East, but also in UN bodies that single her for 'special treatment'.

Less than twenty-four hours after the crash of Capt. Assaf Ramon, Israelis were trying to grasp what has become not only a national but also a painful personal tragedy. Capt. Assaf Ramon, the son of national hero Col. Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut killed in the Columbia spaceship disaster, had also been killed and while training as a fighter pilot. He had been following in his father's footsteps, but no one had dared to think that Assaf would also be killed on duty. That would be too much.

The G-8 summit in Italy has set a deadline of September 25th for progress in the U.S.- nuclear dialogue. A former Israel Air Force Commander, Maj.-Gen.(res.) Eitan Ben Elihu states unequivocally that Israel has the military capability to take out Iran's nuclear weapons installation. French President Nicole Sarkozy warns Israel not to do it on her own declaring that Israel is not alone. Back in Jerusalem Dr. Uzi Arad, a senior defense advisor to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has reckoned that the international community still has sufficient time to stop Iran while the idea of 'living with an Iranian bomb' is absurd. An IsraCast analysis attempts to join the dots.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the architect of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has said the IDF achieved all its operational goals. Barak saw little or no possibility that Israel could be prosecuted internationally over its conduct of the war and quoted from U.S. President Barack Obama.

This weekend, the U.S presidential election campaign draws to a close while Israel's gets on their way. In both campaigns, Israel's future will be intertwined in more ways than one. IsraCast looks at the American ballot on November 4th and Israel's poll is now set for February 10th.

For the second time in as many days, a top Israeli security expert has warned that Israel is prepared to strike Iran's nuclear installations, if Tehran continues its drive to acquire the bomb. This time, Kadima Knesset Member Isaac Ben-Israel, an IDF Maj. Gen.(res.) told the German magazine Der Spiegel that Israel was now prepared to carry out such an operation today. In Washington, a Pentagon official has warned that the U.S. is concerned that Israel might launch such an operation by the end of the year and before a new president enters the White House.

Israel has been grappling with two questions of life and death - the controversial prisoner exchange with Hezbollah has apparently been resolved while the Iranian nuclear threat looms larger on the horizon. IsraCast sees a connection between these two issues facing the Jewish state in more ways than one.

Not a week passes without Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatening 'to wipe Israel off the map'. His latest diatribe came shortly before the June 5th anniversary of the Six Day War, when the Israel Defense Forces broke the stranglehold of massed Arab armies that threatened to annihilate the Jewish state in 1967. On June 5th forty-one years later, Isracast poses the question - is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad destined to suffer the same fate as Gamal Abdel Nasser?

How does Iran view the possibility that Barack Hussein Obama, a former Muslim, might win the U.S. presidential election? Menashe Amir, an Israeli expert on Iran, says not only Iran but also the rest of the Muslim world, will view it as victory for Islam. In an interview with IsraCast, Menashe Amir quoted an important Iranian personality who declared: 'If Obama enters the White House, Islam will have conquered the heart of American society!' However, President Ahmadinejad has said that he did not believe the U.S. establishment would let Obama win.

What is the implication of President Bush's Knesset statements on Iran? 'Permitting the world's greatest sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon!', 'America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions'. IsraCast presents an assessment of President Bush's proclamations on Iran's nuclear weapons program against the backdrop of the latest Israeli intelligence.